Writing

I Didn’t Mean To Do That! – Choice and Consequence in Games

Posted by Gryph on April 20, 2015
Posted in: Gaming Memories, MMO, Secret World Legends, Writing. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Future is written

With the launch of Issue 11 for the The Secret World imminent (or at least coming SOON™), I’ve been thinking about choices and consequences in games. Issue 11 promises to wrap up the story of the game thus far (don’t worry, we’ve been assured it’s only a wrap up for Part One) including some pretty major choices the players have been making at key points in the story. TSW has crafted the story in such a way that despite much speculation, none of us is completely certain what effects these choices will have; the game is famously more about shades of gray than a strict right/wrong dichotomy. Still, the idea that we’ve decided the course of major events ingame has always been exciting. Continue Reading

I Game Less When I’m Writing

Posted by Gryph on February 9, 2015
Posted in: Creating, Writing. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Atrus WritingFull disclosure: I’m editing this on weird sleep. The joy of force rebooting your sleep schedule by staying up all night! I’m usually at least coherent even sleep deprived; but if not you know why. I also swear I’m not trying to piggyback off Tyger on the topic of creativity! For those who don’t follow his show, he posted earlier in the week asking for gamer stories of creativity. It just so happens that I’ve stumbled into one of my heavy writing kicks at the same time. ^^

Anyway. Moving on.

As mentioned, I’ve been getting back into my fiction writing lately. This isn’t where I grandstand about writing the next Great American Novel since I find that pretty unlikely – but there is a blog-related side effect. I’ve always gamed less when I’m in the middle of writing fiction. Getting a blog going, reading, walking the dog, crazy weeks at work – none of those seem to have much effect on my game time, but my “real” writing always has. I don’t think it’s only due to a lack of time or because I have a habit of tunnel vision (though I’m sure both do have an effect). I suspect it’s because both writing AND gaming can be creative pursuits – that they both scratch a similar itch/use a similar type of energy. Continue Reading

Just Make It Yourself

Posted by Gryph on February 2, 2015
Posted in: Creating, Writing. Tagged: . Leave a comment

A side effect of this blog – a planned and wanted side effect! – is that it encourages me to revisit some of my fiction writing. I don’t expect to pull a novel out of every random bit, but the process of writing here is a nudge to look at writing I’ve done elsewhere and at other times.  That’s something I can learn from; and in this case something that got me thinking about the, “If you don’t like what’s out there; just make it yourself” type of response I see in some gaming discussions. Continue Reading